Chapter 120

The first thing Hajin thought the moment he arrived at the broadcasting station was, 'Wow. Been a while.'

'Guess it's the roughly ten-year gap — this place has changed a lot too, huh.'

Of course, given that his frame of reference was ten years in the future, his word choice got a little ambiguous.

Was this "changed"? Or more "gone back"…?

"Feels different, coming back?"

"Huh?"

While the other trainees were busy taking in the station, Suho drifted over and asked, pitching his voice so no one else would catch it. Catching that this was a question about his 'previous life,' Hajin snorted a small laugh.

"Well. Sangam does bring back memories."

"You worked here too?"

"Not so much 'worked'… my first program was an Ntv one. Came by pretty often, though."

"Ah, right — you said you were on the production-company side."

Twenty-nine-year-old Hajin hadn't been an in-house PD hired through the station's open recruitment — he'd worked as a freelance PD contracted from an outside production company.

In an era where iTube felt more familiar than TV, being an outside-hire PD rather than a full-time station one wasn't much of a black mark on a résumé…

But back then, Hajin had, now and then, envied them — the ones who walked in and out of the station with employee IDs slung proudly around their necks.

"Back then I was just running to the 8th floor over and over. Never thought I'd live to see the day I came here as an artist."

"Why the 8th floor?"

"That's where the edit rooms are."

Pulled a lot of all-nighters there.

At the memory — was it nostalgia or a nightmare, he couldn't quite tell — Hajin shuddered briefly.

"Team Lead, I've got the entry passes. Let's head up."

"Ah, right. Round the kids up for me."

A manager with a short buzz cut and a big build strode over and reported to Suho.

A new hire from the management team, dispatched specifically as backup today — apparently learning the ropes by getting plugged into whichever spot was short-handed.

—You need at least two staff for the station side to not blow you off.

The entertainment industry sized people up and coldly priced their worth faster than any other business.

Suho was being careful, and then some, to make sure the trainees — still pre-debut — didn't get burned over anything.

Hajin gave Suho — who looked more tense than the actual talent — a light tap on the arm.

"It's fine. Just in case, I brought an extra bodyguard too."

"…honestly, that's the part I'm most worried about."

Suho's and Hajin's gazes turned in the same direction, at the same time.

That gaze skimmed past Taehyun, who was taking Jaeyoung's photo off in one corner of the lobby, and…

"If you kids wander off and get lost, I'm not coming to find you."

"Yugeon-hyung, that's too harsh!"

"Yugeon is mean!"

"Right. I'm terrible."

…landed on Lee Yugeon, who was hauling Haru and Jayden back by their scruffs as they tried to fan out in every direction, all excitement.

Last night, uneasy about the flag he'd apparently planted, Hajin had rush-recruited today's hired muscle.

"If we keep him attached to the kids anytime they leave a room, no one's going to try anything."

"How on earth did you sweet-talk Yugeon into this? That kid is not the type to follow along here from first thing in the morning."

"……."

"Why aren't you answering?"

"…trade secret."

Hajin quietly ducked Suho's eyes and gave a small cough.

His head automatically kicked into a replay of last night.

—No, why would I follow you there!

Last night, Hajin had ambushed Yugeon on his way back to his room after a shower, kidnapped him, and dragged him into his own.

Dumped into someone else's room in the space of a blink, door locked behind him, Yugeon flatly refused Hajin's order to serve as Taehyun's one-day bodyguard tomorrow.

—You're telling me you're just going to watch your close friend Seo Taehyun potentially get hazed by the forces of darkness — in this dangerously precarious situation?

—Forces of darkness my ass…. And anyway, you said we're just there to tape the stage and dip! Where are we even going to run into anyone!

—How is that not a thing! I ran into you when I chased Dan Haru all the way to the convenience store one neighborhood over for ice cream — the day you'd bailed on practice!

—…hold on, why does that come up here—, no, whatever. What difference does it make if I go?

—A big one. Hand on your conscience — think about it. Seo Taehyun, that kid who looks like a gentle little lamb, wandering around alone — versus you walking around beside him. Which is safer?

—Sure, he looks kinda mild, but he's not the type who's about to get pushed around out there, alright?

—…um, I can hear you.

Taehyun — who'd already been dragged into the room by Hajin before Yugeon even walked in — quietly reminded them he was still here, but neither Hajin nor Yugeon paid him any mind.

—Anyway! You look intimidating too, hyung!

—I have a soft heart. Doesn't work.

—Don't make me laugh!!!!

Yugeon shot back, aghast that Hajin was shameless enough to claim a "soft heart."

—Why does it have to be me? There's Doha-hyung, there's Ju Eunchan!

—Both of them have separate schedules tomorrow.

—Shin Kyungho? That guy looks just as thuggish as I do.

—Do you think that kid is going to be looking at Seo Taehyun once he's inside a broadcasting station? We should count ourselves lucky if his eyes don't roll back trying to spot celebrities.

—Then me?

—You? A girl idol could walk right past you and you wouldn't care unless she was a regular at your convenience {store.}(#s100nhp9jvfq)

—…….

Yugeon couldn't quite bring himself to argue with that.

Even by his own reckoning, out of the seventeen trainees, no one else was less likely than him to have his eyes wander at a broadcasting station.

And so, with Yugeon and Hajin's difference in position (if that's even what you could call it, given how one-sidedly one of them was pushing) refusing to close up—

A third party stepped in.

—Yugeon-hyung.

—……?

It was Eunchan, Hajin's roommate, who'd been listening to the whole exchange from the start.

Eunchan held up his phone with a bank-transfer screen open, locked shining eyes on Yugeon, and threw down a deal.

—A hundred thousand won a day.

—……!?

—On acceptance, I'll transfer it immediately.

—Deal.

And that deal turned out to be highly effective!

—You sellout to capitalism…!

—Se-, Seo Taehyun! Hold it in!

Textbook INFP Seo Taehyun had, sure, taken proper offense at his own friend Lee Yugeon picking money over him, but — well.

'The point is, I got him here.'

Now that he'd actually made it here, Yugeon really was proving useful.

Taehyun had been a bit sulky right up through morning, but once they'd actually arrived at the station, having his same-age friend along seemed to steady him — the stiffness in his face was clearly starting to ease.

Heading toward the elevator with the rest of the group, Hajin checked today's schedule with Suho once more.

"We just have to do the pre-taping and we're out, right?"

"Right. Since we're a special stage, no interviews either, and we won't be part of the live show. Rest in the waiting room, tape our stage, and that's it."

Just three or four more hours of holding steady, and it was clocking-out time.

Hajin prayed for peace over the rest of the day and stepped into the elevator.

---

Once at the waiting room, the Sad-Ending team changed into their stage outfits and touched up their crumpled makeup.

"Noona, do you have any of that skin-tone tape? The kind for hiding tattoos and stuff."

"Ah — I do. Why, you need some?"

"Could I borrow one?"

Hajin took the taping bandage from the stylist and headed for a corner of the waiting room.

The palm he'd cut last time still hadn't fully healed and he had a normal bandage on it; the plan was to tape over it once more so it wouldn't come off.

"…ugh, this isn't working."

Getting the tape on was fine, but trying to keep it subtle enough not to show, he couldn't get it to stick properly. Since it was a palm, not the back of a hand, even a little sweat kept lifting the edges — genuinely annoying.

While he was staring down at his hand for a while, trying to figure out what to do, someone plucked the taping bandage right out of his grip.

"…?"

"You think that's going to hide it? All you're doing is making fans go 'wait, what's that bandage on Hajin's hand.'"

Taehyun, who'd finished his makeup touch-up and wardrobe change somewhere along the way, dropped into the seat next to Hajin, letting out one of his habitual sighs.

When a sheepish Hajin had no answer, Taehyun muttered under his breath.

"He gives me a whole lecture — 'what, are you gonna Photoshop out the mark if you split your lip' — and then goes and scrapes up his own palm."

"That's a totally different thing, kid. Yours was intentional; mine was an accident."

"You never let a single thing go, huh."

Shaking his head, Taehyun peeled off all the taping bandage stuck to Hajin's hand. The original bandage underneath came off with it, and the still-unhealed cut was right there in plain view.

Frowning, Taehyun called over to Yugeon, who was playing games in a chair on the outside edge of the waiting room.

"Yah, Lee Yugeon. You've got bandages and ointment in your bag, right? Toss 'em over."

"Why. You hurt?"

"No, not me. This distinguished elder."

"Distinguished elder?"

Slightly thrown by distinguished elder, Yugeon nonetheless dug out ointment and a fresh bandage from his bag without hesitation and handed them over. Then, apparently curious after all, he came striding all the way over to where Hajin and Taehyun were.

"What. Hyung, are you hurt?"

"…just go announce it to the whole neighborhood while you're at it, Seo Taehyun."

It wasn't even that big a wound, but having Yugeon find out on top of everything left Hajin a little embarrassed, and he tried to quietly hide his hand.

Well — tried to. If only Seo Taehyun hadn't smacked the back of it hard enough to make a sound.

"Ow!"

"That's payback for kicking my leg that time."

"You're getting back at me now, for something from way back then? And didn't I take out Cha Minseok for you that day? What is this, paying back kindness with a grudge?"

"Which is why I hit the back of your hand and not the palm."

"Ha…. this is the end times. A grandson lays hands on his grandpa."

"My actual grandpa's alive and well in Gangwon, so cut it out and hold your palm out."

"Hnngh. Taehyun's so mean today."

"…hand. Before Team Lead Ji sees the cut."

"Yessir."

Why am I weak to types like Jung Siwoo and Seo Taehyun?

Musing on the question, Hajin obediently held out his injured hand. Taehyun squeezed out a line of the ointment he'd gotten from Yugeon and carefully started smoothing it over the cut.

Watching that, Yugeon quietly asked Taehyun,

"…Seo Taehyun, do you, by any chance, have some kind of grudge against this hyung?"

"…be quiet."

All he had to do was squeeze the ointment out and rub it in, and yet somehow, Taehyun's hands were making a total mess of it.

For one thing, he was so squeamish about looking at the cut that he was flinching three times a second before the ointment even touched skin.

And whatever he was doing with the pressure on the tube, the ointment kept trickling and then suddenly gushing out, so more of it was ending up on Taehyun's hand than on Hajin's palm.

Finally, unable to watch any longer, Yugeon took the ointment away from Taehyun.

"Yah, move. Go wash your hands. Noona, one cotton swab, please."

"Cotton swab, here~"

"Thanks."

Yugeon shoved a whining Taehyun aside, borrowed a cotton swab from the makeup staff, and — with practiced movements — squeezed out just the right amount of ointment and spread it over Hajin's palm.

"Ooh, expert hands."

"Ointment and a bandage — a seven-year-old could do that."

"Oh dear. Turns out our little grandson isn't seven yet."

"…no, but come on, this looked so painful! I was more hurt than he was, what am I supposed to do."

While Taehyun protested like he'd been wronged, Yugeon applied a clean bandage over the ointment. Then he chin-nodded toward the taping bandage still in Taehyun's hand.

"What, we sticking that on too?"

"No — not that. Let's put a few more bandages on this hyung's face."

"My face?"

At Taehyun's out-of-nowhere pitch, Hajin's eyes went round. Taehyun handed Yugeon a fresh bandage he'd pulled out of the box.

"Trying to cover it with taping is more suspicious. Better to lean the hyung's concept into something like a problem-kid delinquent — pretend the bandages are just part of the styling."

At that, Hajin and Yugeon went ohhh and nodded along as Taehyun got up.

"I'll rework the hyung's school-uniform styling later too. I'll go see if there's anything useful in wardrobe; Lee Yugeon, you turn this hyung into a delinquent while I'm gone."

"Want me to just have them do straight-up injury makeup?"

"That's too gangster. A few more bandages, that's plenty."

Fans are only going to see it through the broadcast anyway — this way, at least no one'll worry about hyung being hurt.

Fully sold by Taehyun's parting line, Hajin marveled internally.

'Right. Experienced hires are different.'

Why hasn't that kid debuted? No — when he did debut, why didn't he blow up?

Faced with the same old unsolved mystery again today, Hajin tilted his head.